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Satellite Images Can Map Poverty (bbc.com)
A new study using satellite images and machine learning plans to map poverty from space in an effort to "fix the world's problems." Satellite imagery can be less dangerous, slow and expensive than gathering the data on the ground. BBC reports: "A team from Stanford University were able to train a computer system to identify impoverished areas from satellite and survey data in five African countries. The latest study looked at daylight images that capture features such as paved roads and metal roofs -- markers that can help distinguish different levels of economic wellbeing in developing countries. They then used a sophisticated computer model to categorize the various indicators in daytime satellite images of Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi. 'If you give a computer enough data it can figure out what to look for. We trained a computer model to find things in imagery that are predictive of poverty,' said Dr Burke. 'It finds things like roads, like urban areas, like farmland, it finds waterways -- those are things we recognize. It also finds things we don't recognize. It finds patterns in imagery that to you or I don't really look like anything... but it's something the computer has figured out is predictive of where poor people are.' The researchers used imagery from countries for which survey data were available to validate the computer model's findings." The results of the study are published in the journal Science.
It's the only way to be sure
...already knew that. And it's not quite as hard as they make out.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
What's the opposite of *follow the money*?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
You might want to check your timeline. Obama took office at the end of January, 2009. There were a million jobs lost in September and October of 2008, before the election took place.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/0...
Or maybe you're suggesting that he destroyed the economy before he became president. Somehow. Sort of like how Rudy Guiliani says there were no terrorist attacks on US soil until Obama took office.
http://www.politifact.com/trut...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Waste of resources. We already have this data. All you have to do is find any place for which Google Maps doesn't store full-resolution pictures.
Spend money on satellites to stare at poor people instead of giving them food.
Giving food to poor people in developing countries doesn't help fight poverty. Usually it makes things worse because growing and selling food is one of the few businesses that are possible for entrepreneurs in those areas, and they can't compete with the free food delivered by charities and NGOs and aid programs. Same for clothes.
The thing that takes people out of poverties is proper legal and financial structures. The day you find out how to achieve that (and not just replacing dysfunctional structures with corrupt ones) please email Bono and let him know.
So yes, in the meantime, studying poverty is the best alternative. It doesn't feed people but it doesn't fuck with their meager business opportunities either.
lucm, indeed.
Metals roofs are AWESOME. And expensive. usually a $1 per foot, 24 inches wide for a small overlap between 15 inch rafters and 8 to 20 feet long. You can collect water with them, but the tin coating is washed with toxic chemicals. I would advise only using it for gardening, probably still better than the chlorine fluoride crap we get from municipal. Also boiling collected water and then avoiding the minerals left at the bottom would probably be safe for consumption (except that usually leaves behind the good minerals in water too). I don't think metal roofs are an indication of economic status. Anyone builder who is ingenuitive would love some metal roofing because it adds up quickly.
The irony in calling someone stupid and saying nothing else
Did you go to school with Alanis Morissette?
lucm, indeed.
Case in point: there used to be a textile (clothing) industry in Africa, but there isn't anymore, because it's cheaper to ship bails of used clothing collected in the US to Africa than it is to manufacture clothing there. Ever notice in pictures the African natives are always wearing t-shirts that refer to obscure American locations?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
It's probably galvanized steel, a mid grade steel plated with zinc to prevent corrosion.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Light is a measure of electrification, not poverty.
They are pretty much the same thing. Access to electricity is a huge boost to quality of life. Clean water and vaccinations are the only other things that even come close. When Medicines sans Frontiers builds a clinic in Africa, they first install the generator needed to run the clinic. In some cases, they installed the generator, but never built the clinic. Those villages had improved health outcomes almost as good as the villages with the clinics. Electricity gives people light without soot from candles or smoke from cookstoves. It gives them access to information via radio, TV, and phones. Refrigerated food means less waste and better nutrition. Children study longer. Farmers have access to crop prices. People stop gathering firewood and dung, freeing up time for productive activities, and eliminating a source of deforestation and erosion.
It's probably galvanized steel, a mid grade steel plated with zinc to prevent corrosion.
Around here, zinc-galvanised corrugated steel has been mostly replaced by ZINCALUME® steel, which has a zinc/aluminium alloy coating.
Much shinier than aged zinc galvo, and looks a bit like aluminium. Probably what Locke saw in in Sierra Leone. Lasts much longer.
You fucking idiot, human and economic geography are well established fields. The poorest live where it is cheapest to survive. Social position predicts poverty, not racial stereotypes.
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he and his family will starve become some rich/powerful asshole owns the lake, the boats and the bait and tackle shop and charges accordingly.
One is cumulative, the other is simply for a period. Next time try not picking for-profit firms with vested interests, and don't copy pasting shit you don't really understand you fucking idiot. Also your numbers are wrong - Bush Jr. left 11.6 Billion Debt, Obama has added 6.5 Billion in what is now an equal amount of time. The CBO is leaning increasingly conservative but those are the official figures from them, check the link.
I would think locating poverty isn't the problem. Do we really not know where the poor people are? The article is all about some huge international agency making a determination where best to send aid. I'll go out on a limb and say satellite imagery isn't going to make any of those more effective.
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Once we have found the poor what is the next step? Drone Strike?
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html